


The Man in the Blue Box

by ZephyrNico



Category: Doctor Who, Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-13
Updated: 2014-03-13
Packaged: 2018-01-15 13:09:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1305958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZephyrNico/pseuds/ZephyrNico
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a normal day in Night Vale, a strange man in a blue box pays Cecil and Carlos a visit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Man in the Blue Box

Listeners, I have some interesting news for you. Carlos and I were out on a date earlier today. He was taking me to dinner. Now, do not be alarmed, but we found a new, delightful restaurant. Really, it was wonderful. My Carlos is just so wonderful, taking me to –

Oh? My new intern, Mark, is telling me that I’m off topic and that the secret police want me to stop talking about this new restaurant. Thank you, intern Mark.

So, as I was saying. Carlos and I were out, when a blue box appeared a block away. Now, we’re all aware of the red telephone boxes which keeping popping up and calling out messages that sound strangely like Disney movie quotes and songs, but this was different. It was definitely blue. A very blue, blue. And it said ‘police box’ on it. Carlos informed me that these were common in London in the 1960s. Oh Carlos. He’s just so knowledgeable, isn’t he?

At first, I thought nothing of it. However, when we walked past it, there was no Disney song or line to be heard at all. I think it very odd. When I remarked on this to Carlos, he suggested we investigate. Scientists. Always wanting to get to the bottom of things. Unless it’s space; then they want to get to the top of thing.

We moved towards the box, ready to investigate, when the door opened, listeners! Out from the box walked a skinny man, wearing a long coat, with glorious hair. Not as perfect as Carlos’s beautiful, beautiful hair, but it was wonderful hair. Following him, a blond girl emerged, squinting into the desert light.

The man asked, “Say, where is this?”

I told him he was in Night Vale. Seeing as he didn’t know where he was, I also told him the time, day, month, and year. We’ve all been there, listeners; finding ourselves in a different time, place, dimension. And it’s always so rude when those around you don’t tell you when and where you are!

“Ah,” the man said as he bounced on his feet. “Thank you. That’s really helpful. By the way, I’m the Doctor and this is Rose,” he continued.

Rose lifted her hand and wiggled her fingers as she said hello.

I can inform you, listeners, that these two were British. Now, they might have been stealing the voices of two British people, but they were not. After all, everyone knows voice stealers are purple. The Doctor and Rose were not purple.

Also, don’t be alarmed. This man was not a real doctor. I know the fears we have been having since the librarians started absorbing doctors, taking their forms and tricking us. This Doctor was not a librarian disguised as a doctor. After all, I’m still alive to tell you this story, aren’t I?

I introduced myself and Carlos, and then asked if we might see his police box. We explained that it seemed to be malfunctioning, as compared to the rest of the phone booths in town. The Doctor assured us that his police box was working just fine, but if we showed him the phone booths, he would happily let us see the police box. He called it the Tardis. Poor man, still naming every inanimate object in sight like a child.

Carlos and I escorted the Doctor and Rose to the nearest phone booth. As we walked, we passed by old lady Josie’s house, and she informed us that her angels had returned. As you might recall, listeners, her angels had vanished for some time – although we all know angels aren’t real. At mention of angels, the Doctor seemed to pale, asking to see this angels, but I assured him, they aren’t real.

When we got to the phone booth, we were greeted by some song that I was not aware of. It was far too light hearted and optimistic for any Disney movie I knew. My favorite as a child had been Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. When the dwarves attacked Snow White, trying to chop her into pieces, I always feared for her life. But we all know she beheaded all seven of them and made a totem pole with those heads. Ah, don’t you just love Disney movies?

Rose seemed to recognize the song. “Oh, I loved that movie,” she said, smiling widely. I asked her which one it was, and she told me it was from The Little Mermaid. At this, I became confused. The song was so hopeful and excited sounding, but that’s not at all how I recall the story of the shark-mermaid, devouring the prince and his bride when she was rejected. I don’t know what movie Rose was talking about.

“It only does this when you walk by?” The Doctor asked, circling the phone booth, nearly bent over as he examined it.

Carlos explained what he already had deduced from the phone booths. They remained silent when people were too far away, but once approached, they began to sing or seemingly quote entire scenes.

The Doctor remarked that it was interesting, and then pointed, what appeared to be a screwdriver, at the box. I think it was broken though; it glowed blue, instead of blood orange.

He asked us what happened if someone tried to step into the box or use the phone.

I told him that I had sent my previous intern, Jill, to investigate the phone booths and that she hadn’t returned. To the family of intern Jill, well… you get the point by now, I’m sure.

“And this all just seems normal to you…?” Rose asked us, looking back and forth between Carlos and I. “I mean, you both seem so… unbothered by this.”  
I must admit, listeners, I was a little bit confused by Rose’s question. “Well, this particular event is different. We have not had red phone booths before. Normally they’re green,” I told her.

It was then that Rose stared at me strangely, as if I was an alien from another galaxy. Or better yet, like she was an alien from another galaxy who just didn’t understand what life on Earth was like. How strange.

“Come on, normally people are freaking out over simple little things,” Rose said, gesturing around her, “but you have phone booths that kidnap people and sing Disney music. That old lady has angels. You told us not to look at the dog park-“

At which point, I informed her she wasn’t supposed to talk about, or think about the dog park either.

“Doctor, where are we?” she asked, glancing over to him.

“Night Vale, Nevada, the United States, I believe,” he said. Carlos and I informed him that he was correct.

“Doctor, what is going on here?” Rose asked as the Doctor continued to circle the box, pointing his glowing screwdriver at it.

“That’s what I’m trying to find out,” the Doctor muttered. At which point, Carlos stepped in.

“If I may,” he said, with his dreamy voice. “I’ve only been living in Night Vale for maybe a year and a half now, give or take. I’m a scientist. I came here because of my curiosity about the place. While this may seem abnormal for you, as it was for me, in the beginning, this is naturally what Night Vale has been like. Cecil, here, has lived in Night Vale his entire life and says it has always been this way.”

I told them this was true, though I was a bit dubious about them now. And a little confused by Carlos as well. I do remember how strangely he reacted to Night Vale when he first arrived, always asking questions and seeming so confused by our normal, daily occurrences. But I always took it as heightened curiosity since he was a scientist. I never took it to be that something was abnormal about Night Vale. After all, it’s the rest of the world that is abnormal.

“So something has been happening to Night Vale for at least a few decades,” the Doctor said, pacing about and scratching his head with his screwdriver. “None of the residents seem to be at all bothered by this stuff that keeps happening. So what is it?”

“Is this about the phone boxes?” I asked. I had thought he had come here to repair them perhaps, and get them back to their mixture of heavy death metal and classical music, instead of the bizarrely happy Disney.

“Don’t you see, Cecil?” the Doctor asked me, as he stopped pacing. “It’s more than just the phone boxes. It’s Night Vale. Something is happening to Night Vale. Some sort of paradox or timey-wimey… something. I’m not sure what.” He then continued on in a way, that honestly, I didn’t even understand anymore. He sounded like a mad-man, listeners!  
And it was then, that it dawned on me, that he was a man in a tan jacket! Could he have been the man in the tan jacket that has plagued us for so long? I wasn’t sure. The man in the tan jacket was indistinguishable. It was hard to discern what he looked like. But I could tell you what The Doctor looked like. He was skinny, with a light complexion, brown hair that was rather fantastic, and overall, a fairly attractive man. I’d be able to recognize him if I saw him again, but the man in the tan jacket I would not be able to.

It was while I was having this realization that The Doctor gave me a pat on the shoulder and smiled at me. He thanked me, and then told me he had to go look at something. He asked where we might meet again, and I gave him directions to the radio station, to here.

After that, he and Rose left, leaving Carlos and I to get back to our date. We returned home, watched a movie for a little while, and then I came here. And that is where I am at now. I don’t know what to make of this interesting experience we had. Carlos is still looking into this, as it peeked his scientific interests.

I have no other news for you today, listeners. Other than the man and woman in the blue box, it has been a rather uneventful day. I-

Hold on, listeners. That’s Carlos at the door. Uh-huh… Oh! Oh! Listeners! The Doctor has returned! He is outside the studio and says he has something to show Carlos and I! I will return, listeners. And for now, I give you… the weather!

\--

Sorry that was much longer than usual. I have some interesting news, listeners.

When I left you, I joined Carlos with the Doctor and Rose. Outside, his blue box was waiting for us. The Doctor admitted that he was testing a theory, and he wanted our help. He unlocked the blue box for us and let us inside.

I’ll be honest, I was a bit underwhelmed at first. Really, the box was nothing remarkable. I’m not even sure what we were supposed to be looking for. But Rose seemed stunned when we weren’t amazed at the box. She couldn’t even get a full sentence out, though I knew she was trying to question Carlos and I. About what, I’m still not sure. The Doctor did not seem surprised however.

From there, he asked us a series of questions. Had either of us ever been teleported to a different place? I told him yes. A different time? Again, yes. A different planet? This one, I admitted I couldn’t be sure. He asked me if my family had been born here, and I told him, quite a few generations, though I can’t remember how many. He also asked if they all recalled Night Vale being like this, and I told him that I thought so, but couldn’t recall.

It was then that he told us that he was an alien from a planet called Galifrey, which had been destroyed in a time-war with another alien race called the Daleks. He explained he was the last of his species, and that he was a time traveler who was nine-hundred years old and regenerated before he died.

How boring is that? I really did not understand what he was getting at, listeners. He did not at all seem surprised that I wasn’t impressed, but Rose seemed shocked.

It was at that point that he told me Rose was nineteen years old, had been born in London, England and had worked at a shop ever since she got out of school. A shop? She worked at a shop? We all know how horrible shops are, but this girl did not seem like she took hearts, lungs and kidneys, in exchange for allowing people the exhausting, painful tasking of using whatever hair they had on their bodies to make clothes. The only thing worse than people who work at shops are librarians. But this girl seemed so sweet.  
I’ll be honest, listeners, I was appalled. I was even a bit frightened of her.

Carlos, on the other hand, did recoil at first, but something from his old days outside of Night Vale returned to him, I guess. It’s odd, his memories of his life outside of Night Vale, he says, are so hazy to him. Like a terrible, terrible dream. He knows the feelings he had when he first came to Night Vale, and how strange everything seemed to him, but he can’t recall why.

“Doctor,” Rose said, leaning towards him, and staring strangely at us. “I don’t understand. What is going on here?”

The Doctor nodded his head a few times, thinking. “Well… there is definitely a disturbance of some sort here, I’ll admit. Time and space aren’t working right. It’s as if every paradox in the universe is being channeled here. As if all time energy converges here, in this one little town, distorting reality. But it’s been doing that for so long, that this is normal for Night Vale. Honestly, I have no idea how to fix it. And I will admit, I’m not sure how this town will react if I fix it. Which leads me to my experiment.”

The Doctor asked me if I would come with him for a few minutes, maybe an hour at most. Since I was born in Night Vale and raised here my entire life, he said the experiment would work best if he used me, and would be different, if he used Carlos. Though he still wanted both of us to go along, he told us that this experiment would most likely have a more profound impact on me.

We agreed.

But this is the strangest part, Night Vale. I remember the blue box traveling. I knew it had taken us outside of Night Vale, but I can’t remember the details of it. I don’t remember where we were, or exactly what I saw. But I do remember how horrifying it was. I can’t recall why, but something of where we had been had made me feel very uncomfortable, and almost disgusted, even.

I’ve talked about this to Carlos, and he says he has different feelings. He also, doesn’t remember, but he said wherever they had been, felt almost comforting to him. A bit strange, but familiar. Later, Carlos apparently asked The Doctor why we were struggling to recall where we had been. He admitted that he wasn’t sure, but he think Night Vale itself was doing that to us; making our memories only of Night Vale.

I’m not sure how long we were away, but I knew that when we came back, I was so glad to be back home in Night Vale. I know we have our problems, here, dear listeners, but this is our home. Our wonderful home.

The Doctor and Rose stayed with us for a little while, just talking. The Doctor told us that originally, he had come here to fix whatever it was that was occurring in Night Vale. But the more he had investigated and talked to citizen of Night Vale, the more he realized Night Vale didn’t want to be fixed. And his experiment had concluded that if he had fixed Night Vale, the citizens would not have seen it as a good thing. It would have been too damaging for us. Whatever that means.

After a while, the Doctor and Rose went on their way. The Doctor promised he would check in on us from time to time and say hello. I am rather looking forward to it; he was an interesting man.

But, listeners, what I took from my day, was this. Sometimes, we take Night Vale for granted. I know we like to complain and groan from time to time, about our little town, but this is our home. I love my home, listeners, and I hope you do too. So be sure, sometime soon, to go tell Night Vale that you love her. Whisper to the grass and the concrete. Tell the benches, and the buildings. I know we have been neglecting them lately, and they have been sad. They’ve been leaving us rude psychic messages for some time, and we complained about it, didn’t we? But maybe if we stopped complaining, and told our town that she is loved, she will love us back, and stop sending us violent depictions of her buildings crushing all of us to death. So love our wonderful little town, Night Vale.

And with that, I bid you good night, Night Vale. Good night.


End file.
